Filenews 30 December 2025 - by Fanis Makridis
The measures to decongest the prison system and in particular to deal with the overcrowding of the Central Prisons, which the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, spoke about in his in-depth interview with "F" (28-29/12), are in progress.
The President had referred to contacts with the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice, in order to map the situation in the Prisons by verifying the numbers and other data of prisoners, in order to immediately take measures to mitigate the problem.
Foreigners 53.5%
As "F" is in a position to know, these elements have already been put before the Presidency, while very soon specific actions will be taken.
More specifically, the following data apply:
>> 1,120 persons are being held in the Central Prisons.
>> 521 are Greek Cypriots, while the remaining 599 are foreigners who correspond to 53.5% of the total detainees.
>> 145 Greek Cypriots and 221 foreigners are being held as awaiting trial.
>> The convicted Greek Cypriots amount to 376 and the foreigners are 378.
Voluntary expulsion
Based on the solution that has been launched after the contacts made with the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General's Office, actions are expected to be taken very soon in consultation with the Deputy Ministry of Aliens and Immigration, in order to achieve a voluntary deportation of prisoners.
Release 100
In addition, the preliminary list prepared and processed by the authorities includes about 100 foreign prisoners (out of a total of 175) prisoners, who can benefit from the privilege of release. Simply put, it is possible to release them from prison, as they have not committed any serious felony, such as murder, drug trafficking, paedophilia, etc.
Radical reconstruction
Besides, a competent source told "F" that "actions are already underway for the radical reconstruction of the Central Prisons at all levels, with the aim of drastically addressing a number of problems".
These problems, always according to the same source of information, "have to do with the illegal activity of criminal elements, overcrowding but also with administrative issues such as lack of cooperation, even phenomena of inadequacy and corruption".
It was also pointed out to us that "the involvement of convicts or undertrials in illegal activities related to organized crime is proven, as evidenced by various cases that are before the Justice, as well as by testimonies and evidence that come to the knowledge of the Authorities".
The placement
The President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, in his interview with "F" was asked to talk about the problems of the penitentiary and more specifically about its intentions, with the aim of solving them. He had replied as follows: "We are in contact with the Attorney General of the Republic and the Minister of Justice to immediately record the state of affairs in relation to the prisoners, their country of origin and the offenses for which they were convicted or are being tried. All foreign nationals who are in the Central Prisons and whose conviction does not concern serious crimes, will be deported or returned to their countries of origin or elsewhere, and will be put on the stop list to be banned from entering the Republic of Cyprus. Foreign nationals are a significant percentage today in the Central Prisons. The implementation of such a measure will result in a significant reduction in the number of prisoners, dealing with overcrowding, which also causes many other problems."
